"Got it," Jozua nodded, committing the name and alias to his short-term memory. He doubted this character play would come up again much in the future, except maybe as an inside joke, but he did want to remember it for at least the evening. He was also glad she didn't make a comment about his own 'real name'.

What she did respond to was his idiotic question about dancing together, but then she corrected her initial response with something more . . . more. He didn’t even know what to call this conversation. Awkward, perhaps, though not their worst by a long shot. Romantic wasn’t quite it either, but it was in that neighborhood, almost? Maybe that was why it was kind of weird since that wasn’t their normal mode of interaction.

Or maybe it was weird because they were calling each other by their full names and asking stupid questions. And whose fault was that? Jozua’s. He was the weird one.

Truthfully, because it was Lily and they had a shared past ball history of escaping to the Gardens, Jozua did not read anything untoward into her suggestion. Well, he did, for a very brief moment, but then he told himself he was being a teenage boy and she didn’t mean it that way because it was Lily and escaping to the Gardens what they did during balls, because balls were stuffy and the Gardens were fun.

Then Lily asked a normal safe question that helped put them back into their normal comfortable mode of conversing. Still dancing, which was really nice, and he’d have to remember to thank Mom for making him learn, but comfortable together again, like they should be. “The only times I ever did stay until the end, it was in the Netherlands,” Jozua admitted, which was no doubt because he only ever went to balls in his maternal family’s company, and they never deigned to visit the States. The Sparks side was far too eccentric to get invited to anything like that in America. And too practical to ever want to be, though Dad did a good job pretending otherwise, to appease his in-laws when they visited. “So there were language barriers to make it even more hideously boring and tedious. I’m all for skipping out once we know who won the House Cup.” Teppenpaw had a title to defend, after all. He looked doubtfully at her nice dress. As beautiful as it was on Lily, he doubted its practicality. “Not sure how good that’s going to hold up to climbing trees tonight, though.”

Jozua was a surprisingly good dancer. She wasn't sure what she had expected, seeing as they'd hardly danced together before, but she was admittedly surprised. It was actually enjoyable - not tense... more

Jozua grinned as Lily assured him that climbing trees was not out of the question tonight. And they called Aladrens problem solvers. “Right, good plan,” he approved. “Probably try transfiguration... more

"Oh, Charlotte would murder me if this dress was torn," said Lily, unable to hide her smirk. "I can just imagine her expression. You can't deny it would be a fun game though, levitating each other,"... more